Monsoon restaurant in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood recently launched a series of spirits flights to educate guests on various spirits. And the best part is that the flights are half price after 9 pm. Each flight contains three, 1-ounce pours of one style of spirits. They are generally classic sipping spirits like whiskey, cognac, agave-based spirits and eau de vies. Learning never tasted so good.
Bar manager Jon Christiansen launched the program earlier this year, wanting to give people a chance to try a number of different spirits side-by-side. The approach allows the guest to ruminate on what they’re drinking and the subtle variations between the spirits in each group.
“It’s educational more than anything and this small format flight gives people the opportunity to learn something,” Christiansen says. “It seems like there are five bourbons, five rums and five gins that everyone in the world asks for. We have a great collection of spirits, so we wanted to give people the chance to come in and try something different. So these are the ones that I want people to try. They’re good, they are small production and I’m sure you haven’t heard of them. Hopefully this will help people find their new favorite.”
One flight is dedicated to whiskeys made in the Western states. The “Goin’ Out West” flight includes bourbon from High West Distillery in Utah, and single malt whiskeys from Westland Distillery in Seattle and Clear Creek Distillery in Portland. The spirits are served neat, and the three glasses are served alongside a small glass of water and a dropper. Adding just a few drops of water to a spirit can help open up the aromas and flavors.
Christiansen chose the spirits for the Goin’ Out West flight based on a few factors. “Westland is a beautiful distillery in Seattle,” he says. “It’s nice to introduce people to it and let them know they can also go visit them just a few miles away. At the distillery people can get a great education on how whiskey is made. There are lots of great distilleries in Seattle, but we wanted to include their single malt peated whiskey.”
An acclaimed pioneer in the industry, Clear Creek Distillery was an obvious choice for Christiansen to select. Owner/distiller “Steve McCarthy was a real trailblazer. He started Clear Creek when not many people were distilling spirits in the Pacific Northwest,” he says. “It’s a real classic.” The flight includes the distillery’s McCarthy Oregon Single Malt Whiskey, made with 100 percent peated barley.
Other flights include the Wine Not with Pisco Portón, Cognac Park VSOP, and Armignac Tariquet 8-year; On the Mez featuring Fidencio Pechuga, Del Maguey Minero, and La Niña del Mezcal; Sugar Britches, featuring unaged cane distillates Novo Fogo Blanc, Clement Agricole Blanc, and Van Oosten Batavia Arak; plus several others.
Christiansen says the Samarai flight of Japanese whiskey is very popular. They are made similar to Scotch whisky with peated malts, and aren’t widely available. “A lot of the stuff we chose for the flights are not things there are unlimited supplies of,” says Christiansen. “We will rotate in new spirits as we need to. To start out though, we have been putting our best stuff out there. The Grand Poohbah flight includes George T. Stagg, Pappy Van Winkle 15-year and St. George XXX. That’s the whiskey St. George Spirits in California made for their 30th anniversary—there were only 750 bottles made. I’d rather have people try it, than have it sit on the shelf.”
